George Lorenzo won the championship that year in the season finale, a controversial race in which epoch-making rivalries boiled over.
Rossi needed to finish second to secure the title, but as he struggled in fourth place he found his nemesis Marc Marquez intentionally blocked his path and denied him another award.
“I’m a bit sad that I didn’t win the 10th title,” Rossi was quoted as saying Motorsport total.O
“Especially because I think I deserve it for my level and my speed
“In the last race of the season I missed out on the title twice. So I think I deserve a 10th.”
“It is what it is. I don’t think I can complain about the overall record of my career.”
In addition to his 2015 heartbreak, Rossi was left behind at the final race of the 2006 season in Valencia. Rossi crashed and ended up 13th, missing out on Nicky Hayden.
The now 43-year-old Italian has won seven premier class championships with Honda and Yamaha, as well as one 500cc and two 125cc titles.
His earliest prizes, with Aprilia at 125cc, meant the legendary Italian found success with a team from his home country.
Rossi on Ducati: “Regrets?”
But it was notoriously a different story when Rossi traded Yamaha for Ducati for a terrible two years in 2011 and 2012. He would never win another title even if he returned to Yamaha and endured a 12-year drought to end his career.
Rossi said of the move to Ducati: “Do I have any regrets in terms of a decision I made? Honestly, no.”
“Of course, the time with Ducati was a difficult one for me.
“It was a big challenge, me as an Italian rider on an Italian bike. If we had won, we would have made history.”
Ducati finally crowned their first world champion last year since Casey Stoner in 2007. Francesco Bagnaia also became the first Italian premier class champion since Rossi in 2009.
Rossi’s fingerprints were all over Bagnaia’s fame – he’s a VR46 graduate – a little atonement for The Doctor after all.
